


Celebrating Gai Phox

by TehanuFromEarthsea



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Fireworks, Gunpowder Plot, Masks, false identities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2018-12-23 22:00:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 11,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11998794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TehanuFromEarthsea/pseuds/TehanuFromEarthsea
Summary: Rey, Finn and Rose go undercover on Scarif to add a touch of Resistance to the Gai Phox celebrations on Scarif.Empire propaganda turned the disaster on Scarif into a fireworks festival commemorating the stormtroopers who fell defending the Imperial Archives.But public festivities take on their own meaning, and thirty years later, it's just an excuse for dressing up and having fun in a tropical paradise.Now the First Order is building an "embassy" on Scarif. The Resistance suspects it's more than that.Time for Rey and her team to add something a little more explosive to the fireworks - if Kylo and the First Order don't stop them first.





	1. The First Order Legation

“No sirree, I don’t like it,” said Rose, pausing to wipe sweat off her brow. It was hard work shovelling dirt in Scarif’s tropical heat.

“It’s an ugly block of duracrete, isn’t it?” said Finn, looking at the new First Order Legation in front of them. It squatted threateningly among the resort hotels and beachfront cafes of Scarif’s burgeoning tourist economy. “Well, if this plan works out, there’ll be nothing but a crater there next week. The Scarifians can put in a nice swimming pool.”

“I call first dibs to swim in it,” said Rose, and picked up her shovel. Landscaping the First Order’s new property to their specifications was exacting work. Apparently droids couldn’t do it. Privately, Rose thought the First Order just liked making other people sweat.

“Come on,” said Rey, coming past them, dressed, as they all were, in maintenance workers’ overalls. She was hauling a wonky repulsorlift with a cargo of palm trees. One end was dragging, making a gouge in the sandy soil. “These trees aren’t going blow themselves up. We’ve got a standard week until the meeting.”

* * *

 


	2. Our Safety Depends on Vigilance!

“In short, our safety precautions ahead of this meeting are state of the art,” said General Hux, standing at the head of the Finalizer’s boardroom table. “We have had Scarif encircled with orbital scanners for the past five standard months. Nothing gets in or out without our knowledge.” He nodded at Kylo Ren. “Lord Ren here is in charge of our ground operatives.”

“Yes,” said Kylo, who had in fact been asleep behind his mask until a second ago. He’d drifted off listening to Hux elaborating on the criminal bosses, potentates, warlords and other potential allies who would be attending the First Order’s summit meeting on Scarif. They were all scum. Wealthy and well-dressed, but still scum.

The various representatives filed out, leaving the core planning team. “Did you actually hear any of that?” hissed Hux.

“I don’t need to know what the Hutts won’t eat, or who won’t sit next to who. My responsibility is security,” said Kylo loftily.

“Well, I hope you’re paying attention to _that,_ at least.”

“I am. If there had been any shipments of weapons or explosives to Scarif, I would know about them.”

Just then Lieutenant Mitaka walked in. He cleared his throat, trying to catch Hux’s eye and avoid Kylo’s. “Umm, explosives, yes. There’s just one thing…”

“Talk to him,” said Kylo and Hux at the same time, pointing at each other.

Faced with a choice, Mitaka would rather talk to neither. He seized up until Hux barked, “Spit it out!”

“Ah, the day of the summit happens to coincide with a local Scarif celebration. Gai Phox,” stuttered Mitaka.

“You must be the ONLY person that doesn’t know this, Mitaka!” shouted Lieutenant Bree, who was in charge of social engagements during the summit. “Why do you think we decided to hold the summit here? Parties, fireworks, tropical beaches, a big celebration of Imperial history, what do you think, you idiot!”

“I thought we were negotiating hyperspace lane access and arms deals,” Mitaka mumbled to the floor tiles.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” hummed Hux, heading for the door.

“But — but — but!” Mitaka started.

Hux turned on him with unnecessary savagery. “What?”

Mitaka waved a stack of flimsies clutched in his hand. “We’ve cracked enough Resistance transmissions to know they are discussing explosives. We’ve traced enough of their credit transactions to know they’re spending money on _something_ on Scarif. But the volume of traffic goes up tenfold this close to Gai Phox, and we simply can’t monitor that many people. Scarif has so many landing pads, and this week they’re all jam-packed with tourists. If there’s any unusual activity going on, I don’t know how we could find it.”

Hux glared at him for a moment, then let out a forceful breath of disgust. “Forget about Resistance operatives. We’ll send down more search teams with scanners. If they do manage to bring in explosives or weapons somehow, we just need to find where they’re cached. We have the _technology_ for that.” He shot Kylo a look to make sure he heard the inflection on that word. _Technology_ _wins again._

Mitaka gave a gulp of relief, and turned to go.

“Give me those!” said Kylo, reaching for the flimsies.

“Why? So you can meditate over them and find your Resistance spies that way?” said Hux.

Kylo snatched the flimsies from Mitaka and left before another word from Hux could make him do something he’d regret later. One day, surely, Hux would fall out of Snoke’s favour, and when he did, Kylo would be waiting for him.


	3. Landscaping Done to Order

The First Order landscaping was done: lawns rolled out, trees planted, the irrigation lines laid, the feeder tank filled with water and, in a separate compartment, gunpowder. The Resistance crew stood back to admire the effect.

“Seems a shame,” said Rey. “I like the trees.”

“None of this should be here, though. I don’t understand why the New Republic allows them to build embassies at all,” said Finn.

Rose shrugged. “You know. They want to be seen as fair. Give everyone a political voice. You can’t negotiate change if people haven’t got a place to meet and speak.”

“So why are we blowing it up, if they’re supposed to be allowed a voice in politics?” asked Finn.

“Because giving them a platform is one thing. Them using it to make arms deals so they can continue their war on us is a different thing,” said Rey. “So we’re firm, but fair, as the General would say.”

They went to collect their pay from their contract manager, a genial Crolute as different from Unkar Plutt as it was possible to imagine. Nunkan Plar spent most days wallowing in Scarif’s emerald sea, occasionally showing up to check their work against his plans. Judging by his plump cheeks and glossy skin, the lifestyle agreed with him.

“I think my First Order employers will be very pleased with your work,” said Plar, handing them each a credit chip.

Rose smiled back at him sunnily. She had greatly enjoyed the game of hiding the Resistance’s modifications in the First Order’s plans. “The trees soften the architecture a lot, don’t they?” she said.

The Crolute smiled approvingly. “Yes. Just what was needed, I think.”

 _Our special extra features will soften that architecture a whole lot more,_ Rey thought, smiling too. She looked around the shady courtyard at the centre of the First Order’s legation. The tank that supplied the irrigation lines was right under the middle of it. The water in it was only a thin skin over a false bottom, set to drain away at a signal they would transmit once the First Order’s guests arrived for their Gai Phox party. The rest of the tank was filled with gunpowder, trucked in under the guise of soil and fertiliser.

“We’ll be back on the afternoon of Gai Phox to make sure the irrigation’s working. We can water the lawns then,” said Finn. “Make sure they’re nice and fresh for the party.”

“Security will be tight, with all those First Order guests around, but check in with me and I’ll get you in,” said Plar.

Finn thanked Plar for the work and turned away, throwing an arm each around Rey and Rose. “Once we’ve packed up the droids, let’s go for a swim and then explore the town.”

Soon, Rey and Finn were shepherding their work droids into a hovertruck. They had to dodge a steady stream of loaderbots carrying the last of the furnishings into the embassy. Indoors, they could hear some interior decorator with clipped Core Systems vowels shouting directions at an increasingly frenzied pitch. Finn pulled a wry face, but Rey knew it made him uncomfortable to be so close a First Order accent, especially one with such anger behind it.

“What’s this Gai Phox festival all about, besides fireworks?” she asked, to distract him.

Rose answered from inside the hovertruck, where she was deactivating the droids before tying them down for transport. “It’s named after a base commander, Captain Gai Phox. The celebration’s supposed to honour the stormtroopers who died defending the Archives from the Rebels, back when Scarif was an Imperial base.”

“You’d think they wouldn’t want to draw attention to it,” said Rey. “It was such a failure for the Empire, losing the plans to the Death Star and all.”

“Is that what happened?” asked Finn. “I heard rumours, when I was a stormtrooper, but the whole incident was painted as a glorious defeat. Bravery against the odds.”

“They blew up their own base!” said Rey. “How is that a glorious defeat?” From space, the crater left by the Death Star a generation ago was the most obvious feature on Scarif: a dark blue hole in the shallow sea surrounding it. Tourist liners always made their approach from the other, undamaged hemisphere.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Finn said. “A lot of people in the First Order don’t believe the Death Star was blown up. They claim it’s just Resistance propaganda, and the Death Star is still out there somewhere.”

Rose spluttered in outrage. “My _family_ fought in that battle!”

Finn shrugged. “You try telling some First Order stormtroopers that. They will flat out deny it.”

Rose still looked outraged, so Rey changed the subject. “Anyway, how did it become this big festival?”

“Well, in the Empire days they’d make effigies of the Rogue One crew, put them on a bonfire and then blast the whole lot ‘til it caught fire. But once Scarif lost its military bases, and the wealthy tourists started to come here for the beaches, the commemorative thing became just an excuse to set stuff on fire,” said Rose. “And there’s a big population here from all over the galaxy working in the hotels and restaurants. They’ve brought their own traditions and made it a fun thing.”

“What do people do?” asked Rey.

“Oh, they parade about, dance around bonfires, set off fireworks, drink too much. Dress as their favourite characters from history, usually. It’s loads of fun!” said Rose.

“Huh,” said Rey, thinking. A slow smile dawned over her face. “Maybe we should dress up in costumes that night too. We’ll blend in better.”

Rose grinned back at her. “I think we deserve some fun! We’ve been breaking our backs long enough on this project!”

Finn laughed a little nervously. “Ah, well, you ladies can have all the fun. I’ll just watch.”

By now they’d reached a scatter of workers’ huts dotted among palm trees on the outskirts of the resort town. The Resistance had rented one of the huts for their use during the project. It was dark and stuffy, and the team spent as little time as possible inside.

Rose reached up for a towel hung out to dry on the tree nearest their front door. She flicked it at the others. “Get changed and I’ll teach you two how to swim.”


	4. On the Beach

After their swim, the Resistance team rested on the beach under the palm trees near their hut.

“You two look so natural in the water,” Rey said, looking at her friends beside her. She’d sat down in the shade but Rose and Finn lay stretched out in the sun. Their skin glowed in Scarif’s tropical light, and drops of water sparkled on them like jewels. “And I can’t enjoy the sun like that! It doesn’t feel right!”

Rey had wrapped herself completely in a brightly-coloured cloth as soon as she’d left the water, even though this gentler sun was nothing like her old enemy on Jakku. The wrap, which she’d bought on her first day in Scarif, was one of her first purchases ever, and she loved it.

After a while spent in comfortable silence, Rose sat up and started idly pushing the sand around her into heaps. “I don’t think I can relax properly until Gai Phox, though. I hate waiting.”

“I’ll feel better when that eyesore is gone,” Rey said.

“If we’re lucky we’ll take out some of the First Order leadership too,” said Finn. “The latest intel I heard from Poe says Hux will be there.” There was a small furrow in his brow and his eyes had a flat, hard look Rey had seen before when he talked about the First Order. She shivered. For all that she’d been strapped to a First Order torture chair, her hatred of them was less personal than Finn’s. She wasn’t yet comfortable with the fact that people would die when they blew up the Legation.

“What else did Poe say? How’s the General?”

Finn’s face fell. Eventually he said quietly, “Poe’s worried. I don’t think she’s left her quarters much since the funeral.” He gave Rey a troubled look. “Does the Force…do you feel _him_ anywhere?”

Rey closed her eyes for a moment, blocking out the beach with its warm breeze and gentle waves nearby. Entering that other world that was always nearby, a vast and humming field of energy she was so maddeningly close to understanding sometimes. Full of elusive things and presences she could never describe afterwards.

“He…well, he _exists,_ still. He has recovered from his injuries on Starkiller,” she said haltingly at last.

“Where is he?” asked Finn quickly.

“I don’t _know!_ The Force isn’t…it doesn’t work like a locator beacon.” She opened her eyes and looked at the peaceful turquoise water.

 _Not far away_ , said a voice in Rey’s head. She opened her mouth to speak, but just then Rose stood up, briskly dusting sand off herself.

“I saw a vendor down the beach selling bribb juice ice blocks. Come on, let’s get some and have a look around town after.”

Rey rolled to her feet in one smooth move, glad to be active again. She knew enough to trust her feelings — Luke had drilled _that_ into her, at least —but she didn’t see the point of unsettling Finn and Rose any further with vague warnings. Although Finn didn’t have the same relationship with the General as Poe did, he shared his friend’s concern for her. He knew grief was eating Leia alive.

As she followed the others down the beach, Rey wondered if her own mother had ached so badly to see her child again.


	5. Kylo Lands

Kylo had Lieutenant Mitaka’s information on a holopad. He’d sat for hours in his quarters on the Finalizer, studying it, and now he meditated: considering different courses of action, and trying to sense whether the Force responded in some way. While the Force would rarely show him the future, he could at least sense where it offered resistance and where it gave him that electric tingle of possibility that said _this way._

Something in the Force brushed against him. _Rey._

Snoke had told him about the Force bond. As time went on, Kylo grew more certain that it explained what he experienced sometimes. He was pretty sure Rey didn’t know what it was, or, more importantly, how to use it.

Carefully, he imagined reaching for one end of a thread, and stealthily reeling it in. It was like trying to land a colo claw fish with a piece of string. The connection broke and the sense of Rey’s presence fled, leaving Kylo unexpectedly warm all over.

What were the chances that she was involved in a Resistance attack on the First Order, right here on Scarif? It would be a coincidence. _Force users attract coincidences._

Kylo stood up decisively and went out to find General Hux, who was in his ready room. “I’m beefing up security on the surface, and I’ll be joining them too,” Kylo told him. “Can you book us rooms somewhere not too far from the Legation?”

Hux nodded, giving him a sour look. “See Lieutenant Bree, she’ll arrange it. We have a civilian shuttle in Landing Bay 10 you can use.”

* * *

 

As soon as he stepped out of the shuttle, Kylo regretted his decision to wear his usual armour. Waves of humid heat rolled off the duracrete landing pad, and for a moment he could only stand at the bottom of the ramp, adjusting. His team of operatives filed past him, pretending not to know him. Their mission was to blend into the festival crowds, and they were dressed in a bizarre selection of beach gear and light casual wear. Kylo could have happily lived without seeing Operative Unkallo’s fish-white belly, but there was some consolation in imagining the sunburn he’d be suffering before the day was out.

He gave a little sigh that crackled through his helmet’s vocoder, and started towards the town at a pace that was more lumbering than his usual long stride. Sweat rolled infuriatingly between his shoulderblades.

A wave of hot air buffeted him as a sleek yacht landed nearby. A brace of speeders swooped up and collected the well-heeled party that stepped out of it. The Corellian Waylords, here for hyperspace lane deals with the First Order. Guests of the Legation. Corrupt bastards.

Ignoring them, Kylo reached the shabby huts nearest to the landing pad. A small Gungan had set up a stall right in the middle of the street. Typical Gungan idiocy.

“Meesa sell you a Toydarian Snapflash? Or Sky Rocket?”

Kylo took a brightly painted cardboard tube and examined it. A sharp chemical smell entered through the breathing vents of his mask. Gunpowder.

The speeders from the yacht arrived just then, on their way to the Legation. Kylo drew on the Force and made a slight gesture. The speeders swerved into the fireworks stall, making the passengers shriek and the Gungan leap for safety, before recovering their course and shooting off in a cloud of dust. The stall collapsed.

“Maybe you should find a less stupid location,” Kylo said, and walked off following the speeders, already far ahead on the way to town.

There was trouble ahead. He knew it. And in the middle of that trouble was Rey. He could feel her presence, a maddening beacon of Force presence through a mist that never dispersed to show him exactly where she was.


	6. Little Reys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to people's love of gossip, even the Resistance's crappy social media network can't stop all images of Rey from spreading. Since Starkiller, she's become a popular hero, even though most people aren't sure what she does or what she looks like. Apart from the hairstyle, of course.
> 
> \- - -

“Can you show us how you do your hair?”

Rey boggled at the trio of small girls who had appeared out of the crowds surrounding the stall where they’d stopped for a drink. They were dressed in sandy-grey padawan robes and each one carried a staff as tall as herself. Finn and Rose looked from the Rey to the girls and started spluttering with laughter.

“Are you ... padawans?” asked Rey, groping around with the Force and feeling nothing.

“No, we’re being Rey,” one girl said, while the others giggled. “You know, she was on the holonet Resistance News.” This was delivered with an air of importance suitable for little girls who watch the grown-up news.

“She’s a hero,” added one of the other girls.

“MY mother made the costumes,” said the third girl. “But she can’t do hair. Rey has hair like yours. You look just like her. Can you show us how you do it?”

Finn and Rose were shaking with suppressed laughter. Rose had a thing about Rey’s hair. She would periodically sneak up and threaten Rey with a hairbrush. “Come on, try a different style, just once! What could it hurt?”

Rey always refused, and this was the result: three warm, squirmy girls taking turns to sit on her lap and have their hair done.

“Thank you! Happy Gai Phox!” they said afterwards, and ran off into the crowd.

“That’s it,” said Rose. “You’re too recognisable. Let’s go and get some costumes.”

“What do you want to be?” asked Finn.

“Be something badass. A real nasty woman. One of the Nightsisters. You get to wear lots of face paint…” said Rose enthusiastically.

“No!” said Rey, shocked. “I want to be, I don’t know…somebody good.” She had a sudden inspiration. “I know! Do you think they’ll have a Leia the Hutt-slayer costume?”

“Leia the Hutt-slayer? I haven’t heard of that one,” said Rose.

“You know. When Jabba the Hutt tried to make her into a dancing slave, and she strangled him with her own chain?”

Rose choked, and said, “You mean like a little gold bikini thing?”

Rey didn’t know what a bikini was. “I think so. The stories definitely say it was gold.”

“Leia the Hutt-slayer costume. I haven’t heard it called that before,” Rose marvelled. “You’ll let me do your hair though, right?”


	7. Everyone's Here

Scarif’s major resort hub was nothing like the sleepy tropical place described in Kylo’s security briefings. It was, as Mitaka had warned, swarming with people of all species, and preparations for Gai Phox went on everywhere amid a feverish party atmosphere. People carried heaps of flammables to add to the piles already waiting at the intersections. Just as he’d read in his briefing notes, there were effigies tied to a pole above most of them - lolling sacks of clothes with faces painted on. Unlike his briefing notes, they didn’t appear to represent the rebels incinerated by the Death Star. Apart from the largest and tidiest bonfire, in the main town square. That one sported a line of poles with carefully-made mannequins of Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, Bodhi Rook, Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus. Kylo didn’t find the sight particularly pleasing, and he noticed the local citizens walked past with their heads bowed, ignoring it.

He was better pleased with a bonfire he found nearby on the city beach. On top of a big scraggly pile of wood, somebody had made an effigy that was unmistakably General Hux. Kylo shouldn’t laugh, really: it was a bad sign that people were aware of Hux’s presence here for Gai Phox. But still, it amused him enough to pick up a piece of driftwood and add it to the pile.

Kylo left the beach, looking for shade among the buildings. Rey was nearby, he was sure. He could feel her presence somewhere among the random clutter of sleek hotels, cheap markets and ramshackle cafes. He must hug his own powers close to himself so she wouldn’t detect him, and walk on, hoping that the maddening coincidences of the Force would bring him to her.

Instead, turning a corner by the courthouse, he was startled to come face-to-face with his own grandfather, Darth Vader.

“Welcome, darksider,” boomed Vader. “Join us.” Behind him, a handful of stormtroopers were stringing up firecrackers to go off along the street overhead. One of them reached into a cooler.

“Have a drink first,” said the stormtrooper, and handed Kylo a bottle beaded with condensation.

“Don’t mind if I do,” rumbled Vader, taking another bottle for himself. He pulled off his helmet to reveal a shiny black face with a grizzled beard. “Cheers!” He clinked bottles with Kylo, who was still frozen in shock.

“Um, no thanks,” said Kylo, and stalked off, fuming. He should have punished the man for, well, whatever. For making his bad mood worse. But this was no time to start an incident.

The streets were crowded. People seemed to have knocked off work early, and the population surged through the streets, many of them in some kind of costume.

“Look, there’s a Kylo Ren!” called somebody above him. A man leaning over a balcony holding a drink glared down at Kylo and shook his head disapprovingly. “Too soon, man, too soon.”

“Yeah, but it’s a _great_ costume,” said a woman next to him. “Look at the work that went into it!”

“But why would you?” said the man. “It’s hardly been a year since Ren blew up the Hosnian System. Have some respect.”

“I was not responsible for the attack on the Hosnian system!” shouted Kylo angrily, shaking a fist up at the balcony and backing away through the crowd. A gaggle of teenagers in an open bar caught sight of him and ran out shouting and pulling on old-style stormtrooper helmets. They were dressed as Battle of Yavin stormtroopers. Kylo turned away and sped up, but they insisted on marching behind him in lockstep, shouting “Pew pew pew!” and firing rainbow glitter and bread rolls at passers-by. He was on the point of whipping around and taking his lightsaber to them when a bunch of teenage girls dressed as Church of the Force flower-children came dancing past and dragged them away, laughing and throwing garlands around them.

Infuriated, Kylo decided to look for his lodgings and cool down. He made slow progress. Not only were people dancing in long chains, holding hands, but children were throwing firecrackers that made everyone jump, getting in each other’s way as they did so.

Suddenly he caught sight of a familiar figure down the end of one of the streets leading to the beach. A slender woman walking across the sand carrying a staff. She was swathed in desert clothes and her head was masked and covered against the sun. _Rey! I knew it!_

With a grunt of annoyance, Kylo shoved several people out of the way and barged down the street towards her. She’d moved out of sight behind the beachside cafes, but she hadn’t seemed aware of him. Kylo skidded around the corner. There she was, walking unhurriedly along the beach, swinging her staff. Kylo gripped the hilt of his lightsaber and bounded after her.

“Rey!” he called, his nerves on fire with excitement. _At last!_

Rey whipped around to face him. “Kylo!” she shrieked.

Kylo stopped in his tracks as she pulled her goggles off, revealing round brown eyes in a golden face crinkled with laughter lines.

“Give us a kiss for good luck,” she cried, reaching up to pull off his mask. “Come on Kylo, kissee kissee!”

“No!” Kylo shoved her away and turned on his heel, snarling as he clipped his lightsaber back on his belt.

The next three Reys he met were children. They fell on him with screams of delight, batting playfully at him with their wooden staves. “The Resistance will not be intimidated!” they chanted.

“Here, have a lolly,” said the youngest one, pushing something sticky into his glove before all of them ran off giggling into the crowd.

By the time Kylo found his lodgings, he was in the worst mood he’d had since he last argued with Snoke. Stripping off his armour, he put the fresher onto ‘cold’ and stepped under a blast of water.

Two days until Gai Phox.

* *


	8. One More Day

A tropical downpour kept Rey and her friends indoors the day before Gai Phox. They played sabacc and went to a local cafe to where they could use a dejarik board. The cafe’s screens were showing preparations for Tatooine’s annual podrace.

“They’re getting younger every year,” Finn said, watching an interview with the local favourite to win.

“Anakin Skywalker won when he was, like, five or something,” said Rose. “Nobody’s ever beaten that.”

“Those impulsors that kid’s using are going to burn out, though,” Rey said. “I used to find those all the time on Jakku. Always burnt out.”

“They only have to last ten minutes for the race, though,” said Rose. “And did you see what he’s done with the coolant injector?”

This was the sort of discussion Rey loved. Finn, who was bored by it, leaned against Rose watching the cafe’s other patrons. A couple of boys came in with a droid and asked for lumber left over from a recent rebuild. The owner waved them into a back room and they emerged a few minutes later dragging demolition materials. “We’ll have the biggest bonfire on our block,” said one jubilantly as they passed Finn.

Quite a number of people were wearing touristy Gai Phox shirts with logos like “Burn, Baby, Burn” and pictures of the Death Star. 

Finn noticed the rain had stopped. “Let’s go for a walk.”

“We still have to get some costumes,” said Rose, taking Rey’s arm. Rey was wearing a headscarf; she hadn’t been approached by any more children wanting to copy her hairstyle.

Without discussing it, their path took them to the First Order Legation. Through the gate’s metal scrollwork, they could see that everything was as they’d left it, only now there were lights on inside. Rey’s vision narrowed on a knot of people standing around on one of the balconies. She could hear the tinkle of well-bred laughter and the clink of glasses. She recognised the red-headed man at the centre of the group from her intelligence briefings.

Suddenly Finn swore. He was looking at the soldiers who now patrolled the grounds they’d so carefully landscaped. 

“We knew there’d be security,” said Rey. “They’d do that even if they hadn’t invited the guests we’re expecting tomorrow.”

“Yes, but see those boxes they’re carrying?” 

A pair of soldiers was guiding a repulsorlift platform loaded with polished black boxes, each with a small antenna on top. As Rey watched, they used a vibradrill to shoot something deep into the soil, then fixed a box above it, anchoring it in place.

“Jammers,” said Finn. “Our signal won’t get in. We won’t be able to drain the tank or spark the detonator.”

“We can’t stand here staring,” hissed Rose.

The trio drifted over to a stall nearby selling spitted sandcrabs, and continued their surveillance of the First Order Legation while munching on the crispy snacks. 

“If there’s only one guard next to a jammer, I could probably use the Force to distract him while you disable it,” said Rey uncertainly. This hadn’t been part of her training so far. She’d gotten lucky once…

“That won’t be enough,” Finn said. “Look at how many they’re carrying. The way they always do it, there’ll be so much redundancy you’d have to knock out half the jammers to have any effect. We might as well just blast our way in and switch the detonator on ourselves.”

There was an appalled silence. Rose broke it. “The General’s not expecting those kind of heroics from anyone.” She bit into a sandcrab and took Finn by the arm, pulling him away. “She’s not into martyrdom.”

Not when she’d sent her husband to his death, thought Rey uncomfortably. A martyrdom that had won them nothing.

“Well, Plar’s expecting us tomorrow to primp up the landscaping, remember?” said Rose. “Maybe we can lay a wire out past the perimeter once we’re in.”


	9. Kylo Finds Rey

Kylo’s searches turned up nothing except a hardening certainty that Rey was nearby. Towards evening there was a spike of something in the tenuous link that sometimes existed between them. Something had upset her. He tried to home in on it, but the Force bond was as elusive as ever.

The next day started with a briefing for Kylo’s operatives. They hadn’t found any insurgent activity, but grumbled to Kylo that whoever had reported that the First Order were popular on Scarif needed a kick in the head. Kylo resolved to question Hux severely about his intelligence some time soon. Meanwhile, Kylo’s normal garb was attracting far too much attention of the wrong kind. It was time to find something different.

Gai Phox was all about costumes, so that was no problem. The broad, palm-fringed streets were full of temporary stalls selling everything from souvenirs to firecrackers; a long, low tent promised costumes to fit every shape and every size of credit slip. Kylo ducked in and found himself surrounded by racks of clothes, wigs, masks and prosthetic limbs.

It would serve everyone right if he dressed as something completely innocuous that they would never suspect. He had the credits to afford something elaborate. If he wanted to look like a Cerean mystic, he kriffing well could be. He headed towards the larger costumes.

His attention was caught by the voices of two women in one of the tent’s changing rooms.

“Are you sure you want to go out in that?” said one, sounding amused. Some sense of premonition stirred in Kylo, and he stepped closer. The Toydarian in charge of the merchandise gave him a sharp look, but went back to folding synthsilk scarves.

The second voice sent a thrill down Kylo’s spine. The light, clipped vowels of the Core worlds. He’d know it anywhere.

“I thought it would be more…well, there'd be more of it!” said the clipped voice.

Kylo reached the changing room in one long stride just as a small woman backed out of it. They collided, and the woman turned. One look at his masked face, and the apology on her lips turned into a scream. Kylo brushed her aside and lunged through the curtain.

It was Rey all right, and a lot _more_ of Rey than he’d ever seen before.

Though possibly not as much as he hoped to see, sometimes, when he was alone in bed and his fantasies ran away with him.

But he had never, ever imagined seeing Rey in the golden bikini slave costume that had been one the most salacious incidents in his mother’s storied past.

Appalled, he stood frozen for an instant, and even in the tropical heat he could feel a deeper flush burning all the way up to his ears. That pause was all it took for Rey to whip out her lightsaber and cut her way straight out of the tent, yelling “Fiiiiinnnnnn! Run!”

With a shout Kylo tore after her, followed by yells of outrage from the shopkeeper.

Outside the tent, he was just in time to see Rey and her friend vault onto a big hoverbike driven by that traitor FN-2187. Kylo didn’t even think what he was doing; he flung his arm out and willed a bolt of Force to do anything, anything at all to the man he hated so much.

Rey, sandwiched between the other two, did exactly the same towards Kylo. He could sense that she had no idea what she was doing when she walloped the Force back towards him with a panicked sweep of her arm.

A lot of the Force consists of being unfeasibly lucky all the time. Kylo had had a lifetime of having things miraculously go his way. It was incredibly galling to watch Rey have the same experience.

_Beginner’s luck._

Whatever she did, it sent the Force caroming back to him with such power that the stalls and racks of tacky gifts around him collapsed all over him. By the time he’d fought off a shower of tentpoles and fabric and stupid charms that just kept raining down, the speeder was well out of sight.

Kylo snarled at the crowd gathering to boggle at the mess, and tabbed the Finalizer bridge channel on his wrist comm.

“Hostiles. Resistance operatives are on Scarif. I have just made contact with them.” Having done that, fulfilling his obligations to the Finalizer, Kylo snapped off the link. He had no intention of helping Hux’s men find Rey and that wretched accomplice of hers - two accomplices, now. That was a job for Kylo Ren.


	10. Half an Hour Later

Half an hour after their encounter with Kylo, Rey’s heart was still hammering. How could she have missed it? Traces of him were everywhere in the Force. Though obviously, an angry Kylo was a lot easier to detect. She got some grim satisfaction from knowing she’d rattled him. It almost made up for the shame being nearly caught almost naked by him.

Rey and her crew were holed up in the warehouse of Pikalik Landscaping Service and Supplies, which had been their base of operations. It was a good place to hide the hoverbike and themselves; plus they were due at the First Order Embassy soon for their final preparations. They’d needed to come here anyway to pick up the supplies that would lend credibility to their cover.

Rey pulled her maintenance worker’s overalls over her costume. She bound her hair up in a brown dustcloth with fingers that still shook slightly. “Imagine if I went in pretending to be a party guest later tonight dressed as Leia the Huttslayer.”

Rose cocked her head on one side, a sly smile quirking her lips. “You might cause a diplomatic incident. The Hutts hate to be reminded of how Leia killed Jabba. They’d think it was a mockery. And the First Order wouldn’t be amused by a guest coming as _any_ kind of Leia.”

“Well, if we can’t blow up the Legation, maybe we can get into the party somehow and sow discord,” said Rey.

“We shouldn’t give up on the gunpowder plot yet. Not til we’ve been over the grounds one last time,” said Rose.

“Pesticide, leaf polish, Bloom-Brite, spare irrigation hoses and clips….wire, contacts….” Finn counted supplies onto a hovercarrier. “Though how we can run a wire out to the wall and get it through with the level of security they’ve got now, I don’t know. What if we invite Hux out to consult on the floral displays, and spray him with insecticide?”

“He is a bit of an insect,” said Rey. “It could work.”

“Then his officers would shoot us, so it would be a short victory,” said Rose.

“If we have to be in the compound to set off the gunpowder, it’s going to be a short victory for us anyhow,” said Finn grimly.

“How else can we set it alight? Come on, think!” said Rose.

“We need to move the water out of the top tank too. Otherwise the gunpowder under it will just get wet,” said Finn. “It’s not like modern explosives. Water kills it.”

“Yes I know!” said Rose. “We can do that manually while we’re there this afternoon. Say we’re testing the irrigation, there’s a problem with it.”

“Shut off the water inlet and run the irrigation system until the tank’s dry,” said Finn.

Rey sat on a crate of fertiliser, pondering. “Gunpowder’s really old tech isn’t it? Pre-everything. Does it need an electric spark?”

“No, just fire. You could aim a blaster at it.”

“Well, those big palm trees on either side of the gate are stuffed with gunpowder, and connected to the tank in the central courtyard with pipes full of it. If we can get the trees alight, they’ll feed back to the main supply tank. I mean, we meant them to blow last as a finishing touch, but we can reverse the sequence. The trees are easier to reach.”

“Fire,” said Finn musingly. “So what, we’re going to sit at the salt crab stall and aim at the First Order’s trees? Just a bunch of happy drunken Gai Phox festival-goers with bantha-shit for brains?”

Rose clapped her hands excitedly. “Oh! I know! How flammable is leaf-polish?”

Rey grinned, all teeth. “I’m sure we can make it more flammable,” she said slowly.

“What about Kylo Ren?” said Finn.

Rey’s smile went out like a candle. “That’s a whole other problem,” she said.

“Can he use the Force to find you?” asked Rose.

“I don’t think so. Hasn’t managed it so far.”

Rose started to laugh then, muffling it quickly with one hand. Her eyes sparkled wickedly. “Did you count how many _other_ Reys there were out on the streets today? I counted at least six.”

“Decoys,” said Finn thoughtfully. “That’s lucky. They all make _our_ Rey harder to find. But…what if he’s not out looking for Rey tonight? What if he’s in the Legation with the rest of the First Order? I’m not going home to tell General Organa we blew up her son. It doesn’t matter how much I hate him, I won’t kill the last bit of hope Leia has. She’s only hanging on by a thread as it is.”

Rey jumped up with a snarl and strode a circuit around the warehouse, kicking at the broken pots and planters littering the floor. She looked, if she could have known it, very much like Kylo did when he was angry. Head lowered, elbows out, shoulders hunched. Returning to her crate, Rey sat down with a whump, picked up a pebble and sent it spinning viciously towards the opposite wall.

“Breath of Ri’ia, I hate him! Why in all the Corellian hells did he have to show up here?”

The other two watched her sympathetically, saying nothing.

“All right. If I have to keep him away from the blast, I’ll do it. For Leia.”


	11. But There Are Explosives!

“Why have you called me here, General?” Kylo asked. The call on his wristcomm had been an irritant that he could not ignore. He needed to be combing the streets for that wretched girl and her accomplices, not standing around in Hux’s dining room while a scuttling army of droids set the table for the coming banquet. Darkness was falling, and his Force senses were electric with warnings. Rey was nearby, and so was whatever she was planning.

This was the first time Kylo had been inside the new First Order Legation. He was unimpressed by the shiny stone floors and ostentatious decor. None of it had any history behind it.

“Why do you think?” snarled Hux. “You’ve seen Resistance operatives in this very town. You failed to capture them. We have had teams of sweepers go through this property and they’ve turned up nothing! We all know there is a plot against us, yet you find nothing! With all your vaunted Force powers, how can you _be_ so incompetent?”

Lieutenant Mitaka chose this moment to tip-toe in, just as he had days ago on the bridge of the Finalizer. Though perhaps it was inaccurate to say that he chose that moment. More that he was driven by news so urgent that even the scorching mood of the room could not deter him.

“What, Mitaka, have your scanning teams finally found something Lord Ren here couldn’t detect?” asks Hux with a viciousness aimed equally at both of them. “Because Captain Galnat just reported to me that there is nothing here. No weapons cached in the vicinity, and no explosives.”

“There _are_ explosives,” Mitaka told the floor. Though even with his eyes lowered, he couldn’t help seeing Kylo whip around from where he’d been staring moodily out the window at the maintenance crew watering the grounds. “Lots and lots of explosives.” He held out a flimsy with trembling hands. “This is a summary of molecular scans linked to incoming cargo manifests for the past year, tagged to a fireworks company.”

Kylo scanned the flimsy. “I don’t see anything here. ‘Corellian Sparklers, Endor Whirligigs, Jumping Flashjacks’….Where’s the thermite? The TDC? The baradium?”

“Um, well no. It’s nothing our scanners would detect. It’s a…a very primitive technology called gunpowder. Fireworks are made of gunpowder. And I’ve calculated that Scarif imports enough gunpowder for Gai Phox to blow up our Legation ten times over.”


	12. Last Minute Preparations

“Uh-oh,” said Finn, looking up sidelong at the windows of the Legation. “Is that who I think it is, standing next to Hux?”

“Oh,” said Rose softly, taking a peek. The lights were coming on, and Rose could see the people inside lit up like an actors in a holodrama. “Kylo Ren. Damn.” She lowered her head and applied a hoe to the base of the tree. She uncovered one of the pipes linking the tree to the central courtyard. “This is still dry, anyway. I was worried they’d be soaked by the rain.”

A security guard strolled up to them as Rose scuffed soil back over the pipe. “You guys nearly finished here? The guests will be arriving soon.”

“Sure,” said Finn. “Just as soon as she’s finished misting the leaves on the big palms.” He pointed up at where Rey was roped to the trunk of one of the big entryway palm trees, puffing vapour over its big fronds.

“What’s that?” asked the guard.

Finn held up a bottle of leaf polish and lowered his voice as though revealing a trade secret. “Polishes them right up, but it takes care of bugs too. Nobody wants spiders dropping on their heads when they’re out for a moonlight walk.”

The guard smiled appreciatively. The First Order was always impressed by people who went the extra mile to do a good job.

Rey jumped down as soon as the guard had left. She looked unhappy. “Everything’s so wet up there. I’m not sure it’ll catch fire.”

Finn nudged her with an elbow and murmured quietly, “Don’t look up at the building, but Ren’s there.”

Rey’s shoulders slumped. “Oh no…”

Just then Nunkan Plar bustled up. “Come on, time to go. Our security pass expires in five minutes.”

All three of them cast a quick look towards the courtyard. Guests were already standing around it, chatting. There was no way to get there. Especially with Plar waiting. There was nothing they could do but let themselves be shepherded out the gates. Rey was frowning and biting her lip, deep in thought.

“Crab stall,” said Rose, turning to Plar. “We’re stopping here for a snack. Have you tried them?” Plar agreed the salt crab stall was good, but excused himself. He had plans to join a party at a beach bonfire.

“Phew. For a moment I thought he’d stay,” said Finn. He ordered drinks and the three of them sat down beside the crab stall on a low wall opposite the Legation. All around them as it grew dark, they could hear a rising crescendo of pops and whistles as people let off fireworks. Long colourful tails of light streaked into the sky, exploding into starbursts. From their perch they could hear the music of half a dozen bands, near and far. The street was filling up with revellers, many of them in costume. In their bulky overalls, Rey and her friends blended into the shadows.

Luxury speeders pulled up at the gates and were examined by the security guards standing on either side before being allowed in. Rey noticed that the speeders couldn’t enter under their own power - they had to be switched off, pulled in and restarted.

“Yeah, I see it too,” said Finn. “Looks like they’ve set up a ray shield. It’ll kill the engines of anything coming through.”

“It’ll kill our blaster bolts too,” said Rose. “If we want to light up that tree, we’re going to have to find some other way.”

Rey snarled with frustration and picked up a stone from the street. With a quick flick and a little helping of the Force, she sent it spinning over the wall of the Legation. Nothing interrupted its clean arc. “Well, there’s our answer. We really are going to have to throw fireworks at it.”

“At least we won’t attract too much attention,” said Rose, as a screaming wheel of sparks came careening down the street towards them. A riot of people followed after, yelling and letting off big flares.

“I’ll go get some skyrockets,” said Finn.

Rey got up suddenly and shrugged out of her overalls so she stood slim and shining in her golden Leia Hutt-Slayer outfit. “I’ll go and get Kylo.” She turned to meet Finn and Rose’s appalled faces with a fierce glare of her own. “You said it first. We’re not telling Leia we incinerated him.”

 

* * *


	13. A Free Ride with the Hutts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wearing a Leia the Hutt-slayer costume is an edgy choice if you're going to sneak into a First Order party on a Hutt hover-limo. Luckily for Rey the Hutts have a pretty dank sense of humour.
> 
> Kylo, on the other hand, has trouble coping for a whole lot of other reasons.
> 
> \- - -

Two flashy hoverlimos were just coming up to the gate, loaded with bejewelled Hutts on their top decks and their entertainers below: mostly young humans and Twi’leks in skimpy costumes. “They haven’t learned anything in thirty years, have they?” muttered Rey.

Both vehicles couldn’t fit through the gate at the same time, and the passengers of both were using the opportunity to jump out and greet friends in the other. Rey grabbed a bottle and trotted up to the nearest Hutt vehicle, smiling and mingling for a moment with a group of dancers who were talking and laughing between the vehicles. With a hop and a jump, she took a spot among the Hutts’ entertainment crew.

“Got room for another slave girl? The other hover’s too crowded,” she said. Outwardly she was smiling, but inwardly she was trying to project the Force like an alcoholic fume, stupefying her listeners and allaying their suspicions.

“Ooh, you’re _quite_ the edgelady, wearing that costume,” snickered a woman in a gold headdress, giving Rey a quick look up and down. Her voice swooped up and down too. “The Hutts have _not_ forgotten Jabba’s nemesis.” She gave Rey a sly wink. “But so attractive.”

“And look, no chain,” said Rey. “I’m totally harmless to Hutts. Anyone want a drink?”

“But sure, I’ll have a drink,” said the woman. “Let me fix your hair though. You’ve got the wrong do.” A second later the woman had found the pins holding Rey’s hair in its buns and released them. Leaning in as her fingers wound Rey’s hair into Leia’s trademark coils, the woman breathed in Rey’s ear, “I can’t wait to see how the Hutts react to the sight of you.”

A Hutt leaned over from the platform above, eyeing Rey greedily. “Where’d she come from?” he rumbled. Rey had no trouble understanding him, Huttese being a common language on Jakku.

“She was with Mahshoo’s party,” shouted back one of the entertainers next to Rey, under a strong Force suggestion from her.

Rey met the Hutt’s predatory yellow stare with her best Big Fake Smile. Big Fake Smile was a long way down on Rey’s list of favourite tactics, but she’d used it more than once to get out of trouble on Jakku. The Force might not sway a Hutt’s mind, but it guided Rey to know when Big Fake Smile might work. Such as now. “This little princess, we can keep, I think,” the Hutt boomed, smiling back. “She amuses me.”

“If Jabba’s nephew Boorla is coming to this party, he will be highly insulted. I will enjoy this,” snortled another.

By this time they were through the gate and into the grounds of the Legation. Rey looked up at the dazzling windows above them. The Force was spiking around her. Stirred up not by her, but Kylo. And he was surely aware of Rey, opposing his energy with her own currents of Force that were like thick honey, soothing and beguiling everyone around her.

And now she was right in the middle of it all; the greetings, the bowing and the introductions, the food and drinks being handed round. A bonfire had been constructed on the back lawn, and now as darkness was falling, First Order officers were laughing as they tried to light it.

If Rey had any hope of going unnoticed among the entertainers, it was quickly banished. It turned out that the Hutts loved her Princess Leia costume, and insisted on dragging Rey around with them all over the party to show the other Hutts, who all boomed with laughter at the sight of captive Leia. The fact that the First Order’s military guests looked appalled only heightened their enthusiasm. Rey was in danger of being the hit of the evening.

“Ooh, look, she even has a lightsaber,” gushed one guest, a woman dressed as some kind of bird. Rey had the saber hilt in full view, strapped to her girdle. The costume simply didn’t have anywhere to conceal it.

“I couldn’t resist,” said Rey winningly. “There was a stall selling these wonderful replicas. They had some ones with beautiful jewelled handles too, perfect for a princess, but they were out of my price range,” she continued.

The woman’s partner frowned and insisted that was not correct for a Princess Leia costume. “I hate these people that just throw together a grab-bag of artefacts from the period with no sense of political and historical context and call it a costume…”

“I must say this whole Princess Leia thing is in very poor taste,” hissed a bony white lady on the arm of a high ranking First Order officer.

The Hutt currently draping an arm around Rey overheard. “Isn’t it?” he agreed enthusiastically. “Hoo hoo hooh! Wait until Boorla sees her. He will vomit with rage! Jabba was his uncle.”

“By Snoke, try and get her out of sight before Boorla finishes his meeting with the generals,” muttered the officer. Rey saw his eyes flick towards the stairs. So Hux and the VIPs were having a meeting upstairs somewhere. Was Kylo there too?

Some of the entertainers who’d come in with Rey took over the music and started dancing on a low stage at one end of the room; Rey’s Hutt companion settled down to watch and she stood a little behind him, scanning the room.

She knew two of the young people serving serving food; she’d seen them behind the counter every morning when she bought her morning kaffa from the stall near the worker’s shantytown. And the Rodian plucking some sort of electrolute was usually jamming with friends down by the beach most afternoons. She’d chatted to him half a dozen times since coming to Scarif.

Kylo Ren wasn’t the only person she had to get out of here. A third of the people in the room had nothing to do with the First Order. They were just young locals working the party to pick up a bit of extra cash. A cold feeling settled in Rey’s stomach.

 _Where is Kylo?_ She reached out with the Force. How many times on Jakku had she braved a trap, knowing it was there, that she would die if she sprung it, but she must get past it somehow if she wanted to eat? This felt the same.

The Force, her ally and her enemy.

As it was for Kylo. She still had nightmares of the chase through the forest of Takodana, when nothing she did could keep Kylo away; the Force all in his favour that time. Yet afterwards…with her rational mind she remembered pushing back into Kylo’s mind from the interrogation chair, and finding herself strangely mirrored in his own pity and fear and loneliness. The Force had shown Rey more than just the means to overcome him; the implications of that made her very uncomfortable sometimes.

And just by thinking of him, _there he was_ at the top of the stairs. Hooded and masked again, a pillar of darker darkness among the black First Order uniforms. He didn’t need to draw his lightsaber to spark a line of fire between himself and Rey: the air seemed to crackle with tension, and the bright cocktail dresses and tinkling laughter fell away, becoming faint and dim to her senses. Rey could already foresee the path he was going to force through the jewelled and perfumed guests between them, the trail of swearing and screams and shattered glass he’d leave in his wake. She had to get away.

But she had to get away from her companion first. She leaned in to the Hutt’s slimy earhole and muttered, “I’ve just seen someone you’ll want to meet, let me go get him.” The Hutt gave her a bemused look, but let her go. A second later Rey was skimming around the edge of the room to the nearest door, with Kylo cutting a swathe through the crowd to get to her.

At least he wasn’t calling for help, she thought with that part of her mind that seemed able to be calm no matter what. Catching Rey was his job and he wasn’t about to share it with anyone. Everything was happening so fast, nobody else seemed to have noticed.

She fled through the door and into a carpeted corridor leading to the back of the Legation. Everything around her was suddenly plain and bare of furniture. Rey ran, and even the carpet couldn’t muffle the heavy boots pounding after her. Gaining on her. But not fast. After a lifetime of slogging through sand, Rey could run on stable surfaces with great speed.

“Stop!” shouted Kylo behind her, and she felt the air tighten around her like a gluey hand. Some kind of Force grip. She threw it off with a snarl.

Rey dodged through another door. Tiles now, and a couple of servants diving out of the way. At this rate it would be no problem to lure Kylo out of the building so Finn and Rose could blow it up. But then these people dropping trays of drinks would be incinerated too. One of them even called Rey by name, concerned at the sight of her headlong flight pursued by a Knight of Ren in murder mode.

Rey couldn’t do it to them. She had to get everyone out before the place blew.

Around a corner and into some kind of gallery, curtained on one side. Rey snatched out her lightsaber and ignited it, pulling it along the curtains in a smoking line. “Fire!” she yelled, and kept going.

“What are you doing, you stupid, crazy….” Kylo’s voice through his helmet was a breathless roar. Rey snatched a glance behind. The curtains hadn’t caught.

A wider door and a long hallway, then Rey found the door to the kitchens. “Fire!” she screamed, and made sure there was. There had to be. If she could lift pebbles and boulders, she could lift cookers and burners and grills and pots of oil. “Everybody run! Clear the building!” she shrieked, raising her arms so a wave of destruction rolled through the kitchen. Cooks and kitchen hands scrambled out another door as a fire alarm started to warble. Rey followed them, now with flying gobs of flaming oil to play with. As soon as she got out into the next corridor she flung the oil against the tall drapes framing the windows, and they went up with a whoosh and a crackle.

It took precious seconds, and that is where Kylo caught her, slamming her into the wall with the full weight of his body. He had her wrist pinned such that her lightsaber hummed uselessly. Rey canted it into the wall beside them until it started to smoulder.

“Fire,” she said quietly into Kylo’s chest, which was pressing her face against the wall. Through the thick layers he wore she could hear his breath rasping in and out against her ear, and the rise and fall of his chest pushed against hers. “What are you going to do, stand here and burn?”

Kylo stepped back, still holding her pinioned. He canted his helmet down to look at her. Acrid smoke was filling the corridor and there was a sudden roar as something else in the kitchen caught fire.

“You’re wearing another stupid mask,” said Rey. “Do you have a whole cupboard full of them at home or something?”

He shook her. “What are you doing? You and your Resistance rabble? I know you’re up to something.”

“I heard it was a good party, that’s all,” said Rey.

“Where are the explosives, Rey?”

“You can search me,” said Rey, indicating her costume with her eyes. “You won’t find a speck of thermite.”

‘I know it’s _gunpowder,_ you little…!” Rey could tell by the tilt of his helmet that his eyes were running over her body. “That costume is… _disgusting!_ How dare you!” But he couldn’t seem to stop looking at it. Rey stomped on his instep with one foot and brought her other knee up sharply to bring things back to normal. Kylo twisted away to protect his crotch and kicked her in the shin. His boots were armoured, and the kick hurt a lot. Rey staggered and bit back a cry of pain. Her eyes blazed.

Further down the corridor, the burning curtains had set the ceiling alight, and Rey could hear alarms starting in more distant parts of the building. There was the muffled sound of voices. She could hear people making their way outside.

“I’ll make you talk,” snarled Kylo.

“Let’s not do it here, then,” said Rey acidly. “The building’s going to blow. You don’t want to be in it when it does.”

“When will that be?”

“Once we’re out.”

“Oh, don’t be so certain. The Resistance isn’t above sacrificing some of its own,” Kylo said. “There are so many valuable targets here, and you’re only one fighter.”

“It’s not blowing until I say it can. And that’s not until people are out of the building. Half the people here are nothing to do with the First Order. They’re just locals who got a job for the night serving drinks. People I know.”

“Oh, so much compassion,” said Kylo, as though it were a dirty word. “If only General Organa had as much compassion as you,” he said, and Rey wondered if her ears were deceiving her, for the mechanised voice of his helmet seemed to hold a slight tremor.

“You mean _your_ _mother,”_ said Rey.

That word sent a jolt through Kylo’s body and Rey felt the pressure on her wrists tighten convulsively. Kylo suddenly seemed to remember the lightsaber she was still holding in her pinioned hand. He wrenched it out of her grasp so with such a vicious twist that Rey felt the bones of her wrist crack.

“Finally,” he spat, and held it in front of her face, which was suddenly embarrassingly close to tearing up. “Mine,” he said, his voice heavy with satisfaction, leaning close to savour her reaction.

Rey had never been sure whether she loved or hated that lightsaber. Sometimes its history of glory and shame weighed too much. But now she knew. She wanted it back before Kylo could add to its history of iniquity. “The lightsaber doesn’t seem to agree with you. It chose me,” Rey said. But hearing the spite creeping into her own voice suddenly made her pause, wondering. Perhaps the lightsaber was one of those artefacts that twisted people towards their own evil. Her feelings about it reversed just as quickly as they’d come. “Oh, keep the kriffing thing if it’s going to make you happy. I’ll build myself a better one!”

With that, she reached for the Force that was swirling around them. It was obvious that it had been keeping them isolated in a bubble while the building caught fire around them, so that with all the First Order officers and soldiers running around, nobody thought to come down this particular corridor.

Lightsaber forms were flitting across the surface of Kylo’s mind where Rey could read them. Ataru, Djem-so… Rey brushed aside her own Jedi training and used an old Jakku trick perfected over years of being much smaller than her opponents. Kylo was no longer leaning on her, and only holding one of her arms now. Rey dropped to her haunches, hugged an arm around both Kylo’s shins and shoved them sideways hard. His knees gave way and he sprawled backwards, coming down heavily on his tailbone. Pulled down with him, Rey was poised over him on all fours. For a second they were face to face like this, Rey almost falling out of her skimpy costume and Kylo seemingly unable to look away from the view this gave him. Rey heard him swallow, then he laid an armoured glove on her bare thigh.

“Graaah!” she yelled, reaching into the Force as she yanked her trapped wrist out of his grasp. As she jumped to her feet, Kylo landed a slap on her backside.

W _hat kind of attack was that?_ she wondered, and felt Kylo’s confusion as clearly as if he’d spoken aloud.

_Not what I expected either._

Rey shook her head as though she could shake off Kylo’s thoughts and flew down the corridor. Kylo rolled to his feet like an earthquake and gave chase. The building was filling with smoke and empty of people, and it was time to finish her role as a decoy and get them out of there too.

 _That fight was just embarrassing!_ she thought distractedly as she sprinted around a few more corners. All the forms she’d practiced, all the epic battles she’d pictured, and she’d knocked him over with a Jakku scavenger rat move, and gotten a smack on the butt in return. Panting with effort, she was relieved to find a door to the outside at last. Kylo almost grabbed her shoulder as she paused to open it, hampered by an injured wrist that weakened her hand. She bounded outside with winged feet, Kylo right behind her.

Outside it was nearly full dark and booming with the noise of music and fireworks. The back lawn bonfire was directly in front of them, and the crowd standing by it seemed unaware of the fire happening inside. It wasn’t visible from this side of the Legation, and the party had speakers set up playing Takodana Thrash at a mindboggling volume.

Rey only had a split second to take this in before Kylo tackled her. Again she was pinned down, his full weight on her. No Force, just his weight against her cunning.

“What were you playing at? Were you there to assassinate me?” Kylo said, dragging her wrists behind her before lying on her so she couldn’t move. “Or Hux?”

“No, I was there to get you out.”

Kylo’s breath whistled in her ear, in and out, and the Force jumped with jagged indecision around them both. “Haven’t you done enough already? You want the fame of dragging Kylo Ren back to the Resistance in chains?”

“I want to avoid giving your mother another funeral to attend.”

“How nice. But I’m sure nothing could make her happier.”

“Fuck you, you’re such a fucking idiot, you fuckwit!” said Rey, falling into the roughest Jakku dialect she knew. “Get fucked.”

A moment of shock, and then he started to laugh, a horrible gargling sound through the helmet. “Don’t tempt me,” he mocked, and pressed his weight further onto her. She was hot and her breath was heaving her ribcage against his, and he was getting all too comfortable with the position they were in. It was dark, and everyone else was facing the bonfire.

“Hey, it’s dark enough now. Let’s light the big ones,” said a voice nearby. “I’ve got these rockets.”

Struck by a sudden premonition, Rey and Kylo both turned their heads to watch the silhouette of a man as he held the tails of half a dozen rockets into the flames. There was a cheer as they caught alight and he planted them in the soil. A second later they took off with a crack and lofted into the air, trailing streamers of sparks. With a dread sense of inevitability, Rey watched them land in the heads of the big palm trees of the gate, just visible beyond the corner of the building.

Drenched with the oil and gunpowder-laced leaf polish, the palm trees went up in a roar of flame. Ribbons of fire ran down the trunks to the gunpowder-filled feeder pipes at the base of each tree. A second later, the ground shook as the explosion travelled through the underground conduits to the central tank in the middle of the Legation courtyard.

Nothing seemed to happen for a second. Then a strip of intolerable light appeared at the base of the nearest walls, and instead of a building, there were only blocks of masonry and timber and duracrete and plasteel flying through the air towards them.

Both Kylo and Rey reached for the Force at the same time as the explosion rolled over them, smoke and rubble and shards and heat all mixed in a succession of stunning blows. The last thing Rey remembered was Kylo’s gauntlets slamming over her ears to protect them.


	14. Seeing Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Impulsively she leaned down and let her lips rest softly on his for a long moment, unsure whether she was stealing something or giving something. Or firing the first shot in a war she intended to win.
> 
> \- - -

Something very heavy was weighing Rey down, and her head was ringing. The air was so smokey that she started to cough, feeling as though her head would come off as she did so. She opened her eyes. Flames, thankfully not close, and smoke, and darkness. The flickering light picked out the lines of something close to her face that seemed familiar. The chrome detailing of Kylo Ren’s mask. He was the weight lying on top of her. He seemed to be unconscious. 

Rey tested her limbs. They could move. Cautiously she wriggled her way out from under Kylo. He was sprawled on his stomach, limbs flung out like a broken doll, covered in rubble and dirt. It was clear that his armour had done a great deal to protect them both, beyond what the Force had done. In the uncertain light Rey could make out that his helmet was dented.

She rolled Kylo over in a Force-assisted heave and pulled it off. Underneath, his face was white and helpless, his dark lashes forming trembling curves above his sharp cheekbones. It was a face she had never imagined before, with those full lips lax and half open like a sleeping child’s. The corners downturned with such a weight of misfortune; his and his family’s. 

Rey laid a hand on his cheek. It felt warm. He swallowed with difficulty, and she watched his adam’s apple bob slowly up and down. She’d learned something surprising about Kylo Ren in that moment when they’d both reached for the Force to protect them. A moment when they’d come to together as though bound by something and he’d put his arms around her to protect her.

It was dark. Nobody was watching. Kylo was not quite conscious, she was sure.

Impulsively she leaned down and let her lips rest softly on his for a long moment, unsure whether she was stealing something or giving something. Or firing the first shot in a war she intended to win.

Rey closed her mouth with a sharp nip and pulled back.

His eyes fluttered open and he stared at her as though he couldn’t believe what had just happened. 

She wasn’t sure she believed it either.

Just then Rey heard Finn’s voice calling her name. 

“Over here!” she replied, sitting up. Then she leaned down to Kylo again, feeling down his body until she found where he’d put her lightsaber and his own. She took them both and snapped them onto her belt before whispering to Kylo, “So, you think your mother wants you dead? It might be time to show you how wrong you are.” 

He gave her a suffering look but said nothing. At least there was no hate in his gaze. A moment later his eyes rolled up and he sagged into a faint.

Finn and Rose came up together. “Are you okay?”

“You’re always asking me that,” Rey said, rolling onto her feet with a sigh. She gave Finn a rueful grin and accepted his hug. “Only just, though. This fool tried to save me.”

Finn and Rose balked at the sight of Kylo lying like a log at their feet. “He’s alive?”

“Yes.”

“Leia will be pleased,” said Finn, shaking his head in wonder. “Things might just turn out okay.”

“Come on, help me take him back,” said Rey. 

They bent down and picked Kylo up between them, Rose and Rey supporting his shoulders so his head leaned against Rey’s. If he regained consciousness, she’d know. 

“Don’t hurt him,” she said as they picked their way through the wreckage and rescue efforts.

“Are you kidding me?” asked Finn.

“No. He’s good enough at hurting himself. He doesn’t need you adding to it. Did we get Hux?”

“I think so,” said Rose. “While we were looking for you I overheard them say he was inside organising a crew to put the fire out when the building blew up.”

Rey gave them both a tired hand-clasp of victory. _Mission accomplished._

The real victory was here, however, in the piece of human salvage she’d pulled from the wreck. How often she’d hauled home something broken like this. A thing that needed fixing. 

A hank of long black hair flicked Rey’s nose, filling it with the smell of smoke and blood and gunpowder. She brushed it aside and shifted Kylo’s weight on her shoulder, smiling at the task ahead.


End file.
